introduction to neal umphred dot com

THIS SITE could have a better name than mine with “dot com” tacked on to it. I had considered Introduction to Ratiocinations Out of Thin Air as a title—and that would have been a great title, if a confusing title. So we’re stuck with Neal Umphred Dot Com. As someone once famous once said, “So it goes.“1

I intended this site to address the misuse of the Designated Hitter in baseball, among other things.

Either way, readers are confronted with two rather uncommon words (although alien has been used in reference to one of them): Umphred and ratiocination. The family name appears to be of Scottish origin, which explains why Laphoaig tasted like the water of life with my first sip!

Merriam-Webster defines ratiocination as “1. the process of exact thinking : reasoning; 2. a reasoned train of thought.” It derives from the Latin ratiocinationem (“a calm reasoning”) and ratiocinare (“to calculate, or to deliberate”). There is an adjectival form: ratiocinative. 2

Ratiocination is not taught at American schools at any level, it is not picked up osmotically, and our peers don’t pass it among themselves casually. Apparently, some people are born ratiocinators; others choose to learn to become ratiocinators. 3

I intended the site to address issues that required me to ratiocinate my way through them, even if they were movie reviews or arguments on the misuse of the Designated Hitter in baseball. Hopefully, my words would entice my readers to turn on their ratiocinators.

That is, I babble and learn, you listen and learn; hopefully, we both come out ahead.

And if you catch me saying something erroneous, let me know.

Please . . .

The photo that greets you at the top of the homepage I call “Upsidedown Zen Kitty.” I found it on the Internet and purloined the image for some forgotten use. But I fell in love with the kitty and the photo and adopted it as this site’s totem. Unfortunately, I did not take down the name and address of the site from which I lifted it.

What’s in this introduction

I write about whatever catches my fancy. here are the categories on this site and what they include in a nutshell:

Art & Artists:I’m an art school dropout who could, at one time, draw rings around most other artists. Now I occasionally write about art.

Avid Record Collector: Most of the articles that originally appeared here on record collecting were transferred to my Rather Rare Records site.

Baseball Observations: Thoughts on the game.

Books & Authors: Book reviews.

It ain’t what you know that get’s you in trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.” (Mark Twain)

Comic Books: Most of the articles that originally appeared here on comics will be transferred to my The Endless Sixties site.

Movies & TV Shows: My views on movies and television shows, usually long-running series that I just binge-watched my way through.

My Poetry:Free verse from the cosmic consciousness.

Neal’s Rants:Mostly political.

Science Fiction & Fantasy: My favorite genre.

Strunkenwhiten It: On the use and misuse of grammar and punctuation.

James Clavell’s third novel, Shogun (Atheneum, 1975), occurred in early 17th century Japan. Chronologically, it was the first in his series of six “Asian novels” that spanned five centuries and two related families. Shogun was the best selling of the six books with worldwide sales approaching 20,000,000!

My books (so far)

There are eight articles on this site explaining the various books I published for record collectors. These posts provide additional background information on me and my career. They are best read in the following order, which is roughly chronological:

One of my faveravest movies is Ron Shelton’s 1996 romantic comedy Tin Cup. While this poster certainly makes the film look like a ‘chick-flick,’ it’s actually more of a ‘buddy-flick.’ And despite the obvious romance between Kevin Costner and Rene Russo, she’s as much a buddy as a lover.And Don Johnson steals the movie as a self-absorbed arsehole

Even more information

If you want a more “intimate” look-see at me, click on over to A Little Background Information. It’s a list of my a few of my favorite things, like favorite novel (James Clavell’s Shogun with his Tai-Pan a lose second), favorite movie (King Kong, not Tin Cup), and favorite whiskey (10-year-old Laphroaig) that will give you a small sense of who I am.

Finally, I am sixtysomething years old (it changes regularly) and still railing against life’s injustices, tilting with the windmills the vast rightwingnut conspiracy throws up every day, and dodging the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or absorbing them when I don’t move fast enough . . .

FEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page is of a confrontation between antiwar demonstrators and the National Guard in 1967. Taken by Barry Boston, it is one of the quintessential “Sixties” images ever taken. It is also the primary image used on the home page of my other website, The Endless Sixties.

FOOTNOTES:

1 I did use Ratiocination Out Of Thin Air as a subtitle for this site a while.

2 There are two pronunciations for ratiocination: one has a soft ‘t’ sound (ra-shē-ˈō-sə-ˌnāt), while the other has a hard ‘t’ sound (ra-tē-ˈō-sə-ˌnāt). I prefer the former. (To hear the pronounciations, click here.)

3 Merriam-Webster includes this interesting historical and literary tidbit under its entry for ratiocination:

“Edgar Allan Poe is said to have called the 1841 story The Murders in the Rue Morgue his first ‘tale of ratiocination.’ Many today agree with his assessment and consider that Poe classic to be the world’s first detective story. Poe didn’t actually use ‘ratiocination’ in Rue Morgue, but the term does appear three times in its 1842 sequel, The Mystery of Marie Roget. The second tale is based on an actual murder, and as the case unfolded after the publication of Poe’s work, it became clear that his fictional detective had done an amazing job of reasoning through the crime.